Contact Reconciliation

DonorPoint automatically creates contact records from form submissions. Over time, the same person may appear as multiple contacts — from self-registration with different email addresses, staff entry, or bulk imports. Contact Reconciliation helps you identify and merge duplicate contact records.

Why Reconciliation Happens

Duplicates arise from several common sources:

  • A donor completes a form without logging in, creating a new contact record even though they exist in your database
  • A donor uses a different email address than the one on file
  • Staff manually enter a contact that already exists
  • An import file contains records that match existing contacts

Finding Duplicates

DonorPoint searches for potential duplicates automatically based on:

  • Name similarity — first and last name matching
  • Contact ID — if an external ID (employee number, student ID, etc.) matches
  • Email address — exact or near-match

To view potential duplicates:

  1. Go to Reconciliation under the Contacts sidebar.
  2. DonorPoint presents pairs of potential duplicate contacts for review.
  3. For each pair, you can see the two contact records side by side.

You can also search for potential duplicates manually by searching for a contact by name, email, or Contact ID.

Merging Contacts

When you identify two records as duplicates:

  1. Open the Reconciliation record for the pair.
  2. Review both records — identify which is the primary record (the one to keep) and which is the secondary (the one to merge into the primary).
  3. DonorPoint copies all associations from the secondary record to the primary:
    • Transactions (giving history)
    • Volunteer records
    • Event registrations
    • Segment memberships
    • Communication log (calls, meetings, emails, notes)
    • Tasks
    • Opportunities
  4. Click Merge to complete the operation.
  5. The secondary record is archived. All associations now point to the primary record.

Custom Field Data

Custom field values from both records are reviewed before merging. Where both records have a value for the same field, you can choose which value to retain on the merged record.

After Merging

After merging:

  • Reports and giving totals reflect the combined history on the primary record
  • The secondary record is archived (not deleted) for audit purposes
  • Any login credentials on the secondary record are deactivated

Best Practices

  • Prevent duplicates at import time: Use the ContactID field in import files to match incoming records against existing contacts. If a match is found, the existing record is updated rather than a new one created.
  • Use the contact ID field consistently: Assign a unique external ID (e.g., employee number) to contacts and include it in all imports to prevent duplicates.
  • Review reconciliation regularly: Run a reconciliation review periodically, especially after large imports or end-of-campaign activity.